Denza coming to Australia in 2025

Global EV giant BYD will unleash its Denza luxury brand in the second half of 2025 as it seeks to challenge the established prestige brands.

And the incoming brand has already earmarked rival luxury brands from which it hopes to poach customers.

“You can probably look to similar models in Lexus or Land Rover, there’s a lot of possible [competitors],” BYD’s Asia Pacific boss, Liu Xueliang, told carsales.

The regional chief explained that Denza would a key part of the BYD juggernaut in Australia and noted that its vehicles – likely to include the N7 and N8 SUVs – will have a strong focus on technology.

The Porsche Taycan Sport Turismo-esque Denza Z9 GT is the brand’s flagship model and a red-hot tip to be one of the first models offered here.

Available in China with the choice of plug-in hybrid or battery-electric power, the hybrid version belts out 640kW while the EV hums out a might 710kW and can accelerate from 0-100km/h in 3.4 seconds.

“We see customers who like technology – and luxury – will gravitate to Denza and we really have a great expectation for Denza in Australia,” Xueliang said via an interpreter.

BYD is flying high on strong Australian (and global) sales results in 2024, buoyed by thousands of pre-orders for the BYD Shark 6 hybrid ute Down Under.

“When denza launches in Australia, we want to provide opportunity to Australia customers to really experience what high technology in a luxury car,” the APAC boss added.

“In China, Denza is a luxury brand, and we want to use this kind of EV platform to redefine luxury and technology – we call it ‘tech luxury’.”

Some of the headline tech luxury features include acres of Nappa leather upholstery, power-operated and massaging seats, dual in-car fridges and Rolls-Royce inspired wheel caps that always remain upright when the car is moving.

The driver’s door also automatically closes when you sit inside and press the brake pedal (or use voice command), not to mention the BYD-inspired rotating central touchscreen, a colossal 26-speaker sound system from French brand Devialet and 16 cameras.

It also comes with a ‘tank turn’ function that chews through tyres but looks very cool and works by spinning the rear wheels slowly in opposite directions.

“Before Tesla or BYD came to the market, the whole OEM car industry was lacking any revolution or innovation, for over 100 years,” Xueliang said.

“And after Tesla and BYD are coming to the market, it’s not just that we bring the technology into the industry, we also make the whole life of our customers easier and more convenient in a lot of ways.

“And that in that case, when Denza launches in Australia, we want to provide opportunity to Australian customers to really experience what is the real tech in luxury.”

Denza was a joint venture between Mercedes-Benz and BYD, but the German car-maker sold its remaining 10 per cent stake back to BYD in late 2024.

As well as Lexus and Land Rover, Denza will compete against brands like Cadillac and Genesis and, like those smaller brands, is unlikely to generate big sale volumes immediately.

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